


Sleepwalkers

by tea_and_outer_space



Category: Ghost - Mystery Skulls (Music Video), Mystery Skulls (Band)
Genre: Friendship, Ghost Hunters, Multi, parks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-12-02
Packaged: 2018-02-24 05:04:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2569169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tea_and_outer_space/pseuds/tea_and_outer_space
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lewis has anger issues. Vivi pretends far too much. Arthur is overly scared. Mystery doesn't know how to sit or stay.</p><p>They're all messed up in their own personal way, but they have a van, ghosts to hunt, and the wide open road, so things might just turn out okay.</p><p>This is the story of the four of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meetings.

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off of my interpretations of their personalities, basically I took what I saw from the video, and added onto it. A lot. I also made up their last names, and jobs, and wow I added onto these characters a whole freaking lot. Apologies if they don't line up with how you view them or what's dominant in the fandom (which I have yet to explore, so most of the stuff in this is basically what I cooked up). I did my best.
> 
> I hope you like them, and this.

Lewis first met Vivi on a cold winter night.

He had closed up the restaurant that he worked at at three a.m., and decided to take a shortcut across the park, cutting off ten minutes of his walk to his apartment.

No one really liked the park, and it was fairly obvious why.

It was haunted, the trees were all dead and twisted, no grass grew and the sun didn't shine there. No one liked the park, and in most of his life of living in the same city, he never once saw anyone enter the park, or leave it, for that matter. He'd only been in it once or twice, on a dare from his idiotic friends, but generally he didn't like going there, so he avoided it.

But it was three am, he had been working for a solid twelve hours straight, and Lewis wanted nothing more than to be _home_ , and walking across a creepy park made that ten minutes less far away.

And so he tightened his cravat, shoved his hands in his pockets, squared his shoulders, and with that, he entered the park.

It seemed as if the air dropped ten degrees the moment he set foot on the old pavement, but he continued, walking swiftly, and trying not to look directly at the eyes peering at him from the shadows.

Lewis knew ghosts were real, but he never had an encounter with one, and he wanted it to stay that way. Ghosts and demons were something to see on the news, or read about online, interesting, but there was no way in hell he'd want to meet one.

The sky grew darker, and Lewis walked faster, and he was about halfway through the park when he heard a rustling in the bushes nearby.

There was a deep, scratchy laugh, and Lewis was prepared to burst out running, when he heard the sounds of someone struggling. Grunting and panting, someone was in the park, and with whatever was laughing horrendously.

Lewis wasn't a bad person. In fact, he was a rather good person. He gave money when he went to church, he bought overpriced lemonade from little kid's lemonade stands, he placed the turtles by the beach back on their feet whenever he saw them flipped over. 

Lewis was actually a very nice guy, and he cursed himself for it as he spun on his heals and ran off the path, towards the person who presumably needed help.

There, in a small clearing in the midst of the trees, was a ghost, tall and skeletal, grinning widely.

More striking than the ghost, there was a woman there, too. A really short woman with really blue hair, and a really long scarf, and a scowl on her face.

The ghost lunged towards her, and Lewis lunged towards the ghost, while the woman ducked out of the way and managed to avoid being crushed be either of them.

Lewis missed the ghost completely, and landed on the dirt with a heavy thud. The ghost stumbled forwards, and as he did so the woman reached into her pocket and pulled out something vaguely resembling a pen.

She clicked a button at the end and pointed it towards the ghost, and a blue beam of light shot out. The second it hit the ghost, it let out a shriek and vanished completely.

She smiled a satisfied grin, and walked over to Lewis, holding her hand out to help him up.

He took it, and she smiled up at him once he was back on his feet.

"Thanks for the distraction!" she said, "That one was pretty malicious, I dunno if I could have gotten him by myself!"

"Um, you're welcome?" he said, unsure of what exactly to say. "Where did he go?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. Usually it gets rid of them completely, but then he would have kinda glowed blue and then turned to dust, it kinda hard to explain. But he didn't, so I'm guess it just didn't work on him and he teleported away! He probably won't be back, though, the lazer really hurts. Trust me, there was an accident and I can say personally that it's not a pretty feeling," she rambled.

She tilted her head slightly.

"What are you doing out so late at night?" she asked.

"I uh, just got off of work. I was going home."

"Oh. Cool!"

"Yeah. What are you doing out here? The park isn't exactly safe at night. Or anytime, really," he said.

"I was looking for ghosts!" she exclaimed, smiling like it was a normal thing to say.

"Are you insane?" he said, only half joking. She shook her head solemnly, either not noticing it was a rhetorical question, or not caring.

"Nope. Perfectly sane. I'm just a, well, the proper term is 'ghost hunter', but I don't really like using that because it sounds kinda mean. But I basically go around, and I look for ghosts, and demons, and a bunch of other stuff like that! If they're mean, I get either get rid of them or send them to the afterlife. If they're nice... I actually don't know what I do when they're nice, because demons are never nice, but I'm pretty sure that there are nice ghosts, but I haven't just found them yet!"

Lewis wondered how she could talk for so long without taking a breath, and she continued.

"And I just moved here. Like, I got an apartment a bit aways from here, and my landlady said to me, she said 'Don't go into the park, there's a ton of ghosts there!', and since I do hunt ghosts, that's kind of a secret by the way, and I thought that maybe I could find a nice ghost here! No luck, though. Maybe I'll come back tomorrow, there might be a nice one then! I'm positive they exist, and this is a nice city, so I got high hopes!"

She grinned again, and walked past him, weaving her way under tree branches and through bushes until she was back on the path. She glanced back at him.

"You coming?"

Lewis, despite his confusion, smiled, and ran to catch up with her.

It wasn't every day that you meet a girl who actually _hunts_ ghosts, has blue hair, and a grin that can make a place, even a place like the park, light up, and despite the craziness of it all, he couldn't help but have a feeling like it was one of the best things that could have ever happened.

"I'm Vivi, by the way," she said once he was by her side, and they were heading down the path, "My full name is Vivian Lalonde Smith, but I never really liked Vivian, so I made everyone call me Vivi. I gave myself my middle name, though, so I like it a lot. What's your name?"

"Lewis Exspiravit. It's kind of a weird name-"

"No!" she interrupted, "No, it's really pretty! I like it a lot! It's a whole lot cooler than Vivian Smith."

Lewis shook his head.

"Nah, I think your name is really pretty too. At least you have a last name people can actually pronounce on the first try."

Vivi laughed at that, a light, happy noise that made Lewis automatically laugh along with her.

He liked her, he decided.

They continued walking until they were out of the park, and in that time, Vivi found out that he lived alone and he worked at a restaurant that served rather spicy food, and he did not, in fact, use volumizing shampoo, his hair was just naturally like that, and Lewis found out that she was brand new to the city, and needed someone to show her around (a hint that he picked up eagerly), and that she was fairly eager to talk about _almost_ anything. Almost.

They continued walking together, finding that they lived in the same apartment building, the same floor, even.

Lewis said that it was one hell of a coincidence.

Vivi grinned, and said that it was simply fate.

* * *

They met Arthur around three months later, when Lewis realized that his savings were running low, and his paycheck wasn't really enough to cover rent regularly.

And so, he decided to find a roommate.

Vivi had offered to move in with him, an offer that he turned while blushing. It wasn't just the fact that he had a small (huge) crush on her, but she also did hunt ghosts for a living, which did lead to some odd working hours, and a few rare cases of her bringing her work home with her. He had once walked into her apartment and saw her fending off no less than five demons, and although no one got _too_ hurt, he really didn't need that kind of adventure potentially beyond his apartment door every time he came home.

And so, he did what normal people (although he didn't know if that term applied to him) did. He placed an add in the newspaper.

Vivi had laughed when he told her that, and reminded him that the internet was, in fact, something that did exist and made finding roommates easier. He did wind up getting six phone calls about it, so maybe the newspaper was more effective than Vivi thought.

The first five didn't work out, as two of them were very obviously on drugs, one of them relentlessly flirted with Vivi throughout the entire showing of the apartment, and one was giving off some bad vibes to Vivi.

Vibes were something that Vivi firmly believed in, and had told Lewis all about them. She could just _tell_ with people, if they were good or bad or not to be trusted or were fantastic at making oatmeal.

She had a similar vibe about Lewis, not oatmeal, though, it was fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which he had never made before. Once she had explained to him the concept of vibes and handed him the ingredients for fried pb&j's, he humored her.

They came out freaking _fantastic_ , and Lewis had trusted her vibes ever since.

He got the sixth phone call at noon, which he answered rather grumpily, as he had only went to bed two hours prior.

"What," he said, feeling too tired to even make it sound like a question.

_"Um, hi, is this Lewis, um... Ex... Exspearivite? Fuck, that's probably wrong, sorry."_

"It's Exspiravit, and yes, this is him."

_"Okay, cool. I saw your add in the paper, and I wanted to check out the place, I mean as long as you haven't already found someone."_

"No, I haven't," Lewis said, beginning to be vaguely hopeful, "You can swing by later if you want."

_"Awesome!"_

Lewis gave him the address, and within an hour, there was a knock at his door. He swung it open, and there was a man with rather spiky yellow hair and pants to match. A bright orange vest, and a cocky grin.

"You're Lewis, uh, you're just Lewis, right?"

"That's me. And I don't think I got your name?"

"Arthur. Arthur Provties. I also am part of the 'strangers can pronounce my name' club. Nice to meet you."

Lewis let him in, shut the door, and began showing him around the apartment.

"The kitchen's to the left, right there, it's got a stove and everything. Here's the living room," he said, leading Arthur into the room and giving him time to look around.

"It's big, cool," he commented as he glanced around, wondering if it'd be cool if he placed his X-box in there.

"So, why are you looking for a new place?" Lewis asked. Vivi had sent him a list of tips for finding a roommate, one of them said to try making conversation with potential roommates, and it was worth a shot.

"Well-ll-ll," he said, dragging out the word, "I was sharing a house with this girl I was dating, it was pretty serious actually, but she turned out to be cheating on me. We got into this huge fight, and she kicked me out, so yup. No where else to go and if I have to sleep on my mom's sofa one more night, I'm gonna go insane."

"Ouch, I'm sorry."

"It's no big deal, ac-"

Arthur was cut off by Lewis door being slammed open, and then slammed shut, Vivi half running in and finding them in the living room.

"Lewis!" she exclaimed, not even noticing Arthur, "Please please please tell me you have that pen I let you borrow a week ago! I need it like as soon as possible."

Lewis briefly wondered if he would ever see Vivi without her running, or rambling, or slamming her way into his house. Probably not, he decided.

"Um, yeah, I think it's in my desk-"

"Great!"

She flew (because Vivi never really _walked_ , she always bounced or ran or flew) to the other side of the living room, opening up Lewis's desk and searching through the mess of papers for the pen.

"Are you missing all the pens in your house or something?" Arthur asked. He was slightly confused, but he rolled with it. This was generally how Arthur treated things.

"Nope, got plenty of pens, but I really need this one!" Vivi said, frowning and still scrambling to find it, "See, it's not really a pen at all, I mean it does function as a pen, but it's also well, a grappling hook would be the best way to describe it I guess? It has these little claw thingies and a steel wire too, it's really cool, I'm gonna have to show you guys sometime, and it also can electrocute things! It's super useful, at least it would be if I could just, oh, here it is!"

She held the pen up and grinned, and began to dart back towards the front door, when she jerked to a halt.

"Wait, who's this?" she asked, seemingly noticing Arthur for the first time.

"This is Arthur," Lewis said, "He's looking for a place to stay. Arthur, this is Vivi, she's my... friend."

"Hi!" Vivi exclaimed, and Arthur gave her a small, slightly awkward wave.

"Hi," he replied.

"It's super nice to meet you, and I'd love to stay and show you the apartment with Lewis, but I think I'm bleeding from this super huge cut I got on my leg, and there are _at least_ two ghosts chasing after me - pretty surprising that they haven't found me yet - and Mrs. Thorne, that's the landlady, she's really strict but I think you'll like her, Arthur, she's super sweet, well she'd have a heart attack if she knew ghosts where here! So I gotta go take care of that and maybe patch up my leg, I think I'll need to borrow a needle later, Lewis, but I'll totally be back later to meet you properly!"

She headed to the door again, but paused by Lewis, stood on tiptoe, and whispered conspiratorially in his ear.

"I'm getting some good vibes off of him, I think you should let him stay," she said, and with that, she left the apartment as quickly as she had swept in.

"So, that was Vivi," Lewis said, a moment or two after she had left, unsure of how else to explain the situation.

"Is she your girlfriend?" Arthur asked.

"No! I mean, no, we're just friends. Best friends."

"Oh, cool. She seems... bouncy."

"That is an understatement. She comes by a lot, though, so if you're gonna stay here you'll have to get used to that."

Arthur glanced at him hopefully.

"You'd be cool with me staying?"

"Hey, you're alright with Vivi, then you're alright with me."

Arthur grinned.

"Awesome."

* * *

They had met Mystery a few weeks before Christmas, a few months after Arthur had moved in.

Arthur and Lewis had clicked, they fit in the apartment rather well together. Arthur worked from home, he wrote novels that he'd never let Lewis or Vivi see, and when he wasn't working, he was either playing video games with Lewis, or reading.

He worked rather well as a roommate, and their lives would have been almost mundane, if it wasn't for Vivi of course.

Three weeks before Christmas, it was two a.m. and Lewis had just gotten home from work, collapsed in a chair and watching some sitcom on TV, and Arthur was still typing away at his laptop, when the phone rang.

Other than the occasional call from Arthur's mom or publisher, no one ever really called, and certainly _not_ at two in the morning.

Lewis muted the TV and frowned, and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Lewis, it's you, great," Vivi's voice said over the line. She didn't sound bubbly as usual, instead, she sounded rather worried.

"Vivi? What's wrong?" he asked, sitting up in his chair. It took a lot to get Vivi to not sound happy, something _had_ to be wrong.

Arthur glanced up from his keyboard, frowning. Vivi was as much his best friend as she was Lewis's now, and the two were a bit overprotective over her (yes, she was 5'4 and rather thin, but she also kicked ghost ass for a living, but they were overprotective all the same).

"Just, sterilize a few needles for me and get some bandages and peroxide and thread for me, will you? I'll be there in like five minutes!"

Lewis was about to asked, rather worriedly, if she was hurt, but the line went dead before he could ask.

He looked up at Arthur.

"How do you even sterilize a needle?"

\--

It was cold and therefore Vivi was a lot less tolerant when ghost hunting that night, ready to be home and in her pajamas and drinking tea, instead of out in the park.

The ghost disappeared into dust with a shriek, and she slipped her lazer back into her pocket with a satisfied smile.

She headed down the winding path of the park, towards the exit. She'd get any ghosts or demons she saw on her way, and that'd be it, she decided.

It was a rather uneventful walk for the first half, but as she neared the exit, she saw a small, white _creature_ laying in the snow. He would have blended in almost perfectly if it wasn't for the red and brown tufts of fur behind his ears and the brown spot on his back and tail, and the small pool of blood pooling beneath one of his hind legs.

He shivered slightly, and Vivi knew she _had_ to help him.

She stepped closer towards him, and his ears flicked up, him noticing her with a glare.

He gave a feeble growl, and she held up her hands but still continued towards him.

"Hey, it's okay," she said, keeping her voice low, "My name's Vivi, and I just wanna help. You're legs hurt, maybe I can fix it?"

He narrowed his eyes, almost as if weighing his options.

"And even if I can't, one of my friends could maybe help. And if not, we can find someone else! Besides, it's super cold out here, and it can't be very nice, lying in the snow like that."

She knelt down beside him and he still watched her carefully, and she looked over his leg. There was a thick gash running down his leg to his foot, and blood was crusted around the edges.

"Please, let me help you?" she asked.

He hesitated for just a moment, before giving a sharp nod, and with that, she pulled out her cell phone to call Lewis and Arthur.

\--

Vivi did show up at their apartment shortly after the phone call, her blue shoes covered with dirty snow, and a bundle of red, brown, and white fur in her arms.

"Are you alright?" both Arthur and Lewis said, nearly simultaneously.

"I'm fine, but he isn't," she said, nodding down towards the animal. His eyes were shut, and he lost a lot of blood, so Vivi was rather worried.

"What's that?" Arthur asked.

"He's hurt," was all Vivi replied with. "Did you get the stuff?"

Lewis nodded. "It's all in the bathroom."

Vivi turned and moved as fast as possible to the bathroom without making things too uncomfortable for the animal, softly talking to him as she went.

"Okay, so I'm going to have to clean your wound up. I'm going to clean it with some water, and then some peroxide, that will probably sting a bit, but it's going to be okay. I'll have to look at it and see how bad it is, if it's really bad I might have to stitch it up - don't worry, I've done that before, I hunt ghosts so I have had my fair share of bad injuries - but if it isn't too bad we can probably just bandage it up and you'll be fine, okay? It's all gonna be okay."

She made it to Lewis's bathroom shortly, and set the animal gently down on the floor. She grabbed a washcloth and ran it under some warm water from the sink, and grabbed the stuff that Lewis and Arthur had gotten for her.

She knelt down, and set the stuff beside her, before carefully taking his paw in her hand.

"This probably isn't going to feel great, okay?" She said, before gently running the wet cloth over the wound, getting rid of the excess blood.

He flinched, slightly, but tried not to move too much.

She scrutinized the wound, frowning in thought.

"Well," she said after a moment, "The good news is that I don't think I'm gonna have to stitch this up. Just bandages will do. The bad news is that it's time for the peroxide. This is gonna really sting, sorry."

The animal simply laid his head down, and shut his eyes rather tight, bracing himself.

Vivi grabbed the bottle of peroxide and twisted the lid open, and cringed as she poured it over the wound. The animal whimpered, and Vivi almost wanted to do the same.

She let it set for a moment before picking up the bandages, and carefully wrapping it around his leg. It was something that she had done on herself many times before, so she was able to do it rather quickly.

"Okay then, we're done," she said, once she sealed the bandages down.

"Is he okay?" Lewis asked, from where he and Arthur stood in the doorway.

"Yup, should be fine. As long as he doesn't move about too much, he should be as right as rain soon!"

"Is he a fox or a dog?" Arthur asked, his tone suggesting that he had been pondering this for far too long.

Vivi stared at the animal, and then shrugged.

"I can't tell, he looks like both? It's a mystery to me."

He seemed to perk up a bit at that, his ears twitching up and his eyes shining.

"That's what you are, then? A mystery?" Vivi asked, leaning slightly closer.

The animal nodded.

"Is that your name?"

The animal nodded again.

"That's a very pretty name, Mystery! I like it! So, would you want to stay at my apartment with me, until your leg heals? You can stay as long as you want, actually, but you should probably stay with me until your leg heals, if that's okay."

Mystery nodded for the third time, and if mysteries could smile, he would have been grinng.

* * *

And thus they were brought together, and really, it was just the beginning of it all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will, in fact, be a chapter story, going through before, during, and after the music video.  
> I've got a lot planned, and as this music video has taken over my mind and I find it hard to think of anything else, you can expect an update soon!


	2. Ready to Go.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First time ghost hunts, and van proposals.

Vivi first proposed the idea of Lewis and Arthur joining her on her ghost hunts about a year into their friendship, when they were so tightly wound together that it seemed just plain unusual to spend a night without each other.

They were in her apartment (which is decorated in blue, has blankets and pens abound, and no semblance of order to be found), watching some romantic comedy (this was Arthur's idea, of course), when her phone buzzed.

She picked it up and frowned.

"I gotta go," she said, "There's been a big group of demons spotted out by the playground, y'know, the one by that super old museum, I need to go take care of that. You guys can stay here if you'd like, I'll probably only be an hour or so-"  
Vivi stopped mid-sentence, tilting her head and squinting her eyes, a look that Lewis and Arthur have come to know that means she's thinking really, really hard about something. A second later her eyes lit up and she grinned widely, a look that Arthur and Lewis have come to know that means she's going to suggest one of her typical (slightly eccentric) ideas.

"You guys should come with me!" she exclaimed, obviously very happy with the idea, "It'd be so much more fun! And a lot easier too, if I have someone to watch my back! Mystery's good too, but all he does is bark at them. He's still kinda scared of the demons, it's pretty cute actually, but anyways! You guys should totally come, this looks like it's gonna be an easy job, but it'll be fun!"

Despite it being roughly a little over a year since he had met Vivi, Lewis still hadn't had an actual encounter with a ghost or any other form of supernatural being, and honestly, he wanted it to stay that way. Ghosts were something that Vivi told him and Arthur about when she wasn't working, ghosts were something for books or the news or Vivi. Not him.

Arthur had his fair share of skirmishes with ghosts, most of them beginning with one running into him and him saying something to the variant of "Come at me, bro!" and typically ending with them flashing their fangs and him running off. He'd met ghosts before, but never fought one, and didn't really feel inclined to do so.

And so, both of them had rather sheepish looks on their faces, and tried to think of the gentlest way of turning Vivi down.

"Um, I'd love to, but seriously, this movie is really interesting, and-" Arthur began to stutter out, before being cut off.

"We can always pause it and finish it later! We can even get take out on the way home, if you'd like! Or pizza!"

Arthur glanced over at Lewis, hoping he would have a better excuse, but Lewis was already looking at Arthur, hoping _he'd_ have a better excuse.

"And it'll be easy, too. I'll even let you use the electrocution pen!" Vivi said, to Arthur.

That got him interested.

Vivi _never_ let anyone touch her pens.

As odd as it sounded, Vivi did most of her ghost fighting with pens (which, as the boys found out, was typical of most ghost hunters). She had a collection of over a hundred, and none of them were really _pens_ at all, they merely looked like them. There was the lazer that she had used the night she met Lewis, the grappling hook slash electrocution one from the case she had when she met Arthur, one with a knife tip, one that ejected a net, and dozens more that were entirely a mystery to everyone but her.

"Really, the actual electrocution one?" he said, thinking maybe ghosts wouldn't be so bad if he could shock them, "Like not the one that just buzzes things, but the _actual_ actual electrocution one?"

"Yup! As long as you don't get me or Lewis or Mystery by accident, it should be okay?"

"What one could I use?" Lewis asked, also tempted by actually being able to use one of Vivi's weapons.

"The lazer one? Oh, or maybe even this new weapon thingie I've got, this one actually shoots this pepper spray type stuff, it comes in handy a lot, but it only affects ghosts! It's actually holy water in there, no pepper, so it's safe for us! You could use that!"

"But what would you use?" Arthur asked.

Vivi grinned.

"I have fists, don't I?" she said, and before the boys had time to discern if she was joking or not she flounced off to find her weapon slash pen stash.

And that's how Arthur and Lewis found themselves following Vivi down a sidewalk at three in the morning, Mystery proudly trotting in front of them (he was still scared of demons, but there's no way he'd let Lewis and Arthur know that, especially on their first case).

"So, what's the plan?" Lewis asked. He was unable to tell if he was more excited or scared, either way, he was fairly nervous. He wasn't the kind who did well without a plan, no matter what the situation was.

"Well, I usually don't use a plan."

"You just dive in head first?" Arthur asked, briefly wondering just how he became friends with such a person as Vivi again.

"Yup! They don't really cluster together, ghosts, they sort of attack one by one, so as long as I take them down fast, it's pretty easy! I never really needed a plan before."

"Well, there's four of us, and you said this was a big group of demons, right? I think we need a plan," Lewis said.

Vivi shrugged. “I guess if you guys want one. Okay, I'll just go in headfirst, and then you guys get any that I can't tackle!”

“That isn't a very thought out plan,” Arthur commented. He was even more nervous than Lewis, despite how calm he was acting about it all, outwardly.

“How about if – oh, there they are, let's go!”

There were no less than _eight_ demons, (clustered together, despite what Vivi had said earlier), and Vivi, the person of questionable sanity that she was, practically dived headfirst into them.

Earlier the boys had insisted that whether she was joking or not, fists weren't really that good a thing to combat _demons_ with, and so instead she had decided to use a pen that had a blade, laced with holy water.

She slashed a demon across it's chest, and it let out a shriek, alerting the other demons to Vivi and the others presence, and alerting Lewis and Arthur that they should really be doing something.

Lewis held up the canister that Vivi had given him earlier, and hit the nozzle on the top, liquid spewing out as easily as air freshener would from a can. It managed to hit one of the demons and they howled, teleporting away in an instant.

Vivi, who was currently caught up between two of the demons, noticed that.

“Just letting you know, Lewis, holy water isn't lethal, it just burns them a lot!”

Lewis cast a frenzied glance at the blue girl, wondering just _why hadn't she mentioned that handy bit of information sooner_ , and then looked over at Arthur.

“I spray them, you electrocute them?” Lewis suggested, and they had no time to discuss this further before one of the demons launched themselves towards them, barring it's fangs and claws.

Lewis sprayed it with holy water while managing to backpedal on his feet, attempting to get as far away from it as possible. All Mystery did was bark at it, but when it seemed to be getting too close to Arthur, he jumped in front of him, growling.

Arthur fumbled for the button on the pen Vivi had given him, and accidentally wound up pressing it before he was ready, shooting a small burst of electricity to the streetlight near them (short circuiting it, making the night even darker).

“Fuck,” he said, still attempting to figure how it worked.

The demon was getting rather close to Arthur now, and despite Mystery's growling, was getting even closer, malice in it's eyes.

Arthur (despite the shaking in his hands that could be attributed to both fear and adrenaline) soon managed to get the pen in the right direction, and a bolt of something resembling lightning emitted from the end, hitting the demon.

It let out a piercing scream, and crumbled down into a pile of blue dust.

Lewis grinned, and Arthur would have high-fived him if he wasn't still getting over the fact that he was still alive.

They both turned, ready to help Vivi demolish the other seven (Lewis more so, as Arthur was still a bit shaken up), but she was simply standing there, amongst blue dust and ectoplasm, watching them with a smile on her face.

“You guys did fantastic!” she exclaimed, gleeful as usual, “That was just amazing! Way better than I did on my first hunt!”

Lewis frowned at the lack of demons.

“Where are the others?” he asked, although he was fairly certain he knew the answer.

“I got them all!” Vivi replied, confirming his suspicion. She mistook the look of worry on his face for disappointment, and frowned. “I'm sorry, I just, you guys were busy with that one, so I took out the others. Next time I'll leave more for you, I'm sorry.”

“No, _no_ , you don't have to leave any more,” Arthur immediately protested, “One was plenty, thank you.”

“That wasn't...” Lewis began, searching for how to phrase it, “No, you didn't do anything wrong. It's just...”

“Yeah?”

“Well, seven demons is a lot, Vivi, you could have been hurt,” he said.

She shrugged, and pocketed her pen, stepping closer to the others.

“I do this all the time, Lewis. I'm fine, there's no need to worry,” she reassured him, “Now, wanna go get some pizza – oh, or ice cream even! There's this one place just a bit away from the apartment that's open all night, and their banana splits are to die for!”

And with that, she bounced past them, a grin firmly on her face, continuing to ramble about various ice cream choices, and what the next few hunts she'd take them on would be like, because apparently they were going to go on more hunts with her, weather they liked it or not.

Arthur and Lewis and Mystery followed her down the sidewalk, and at some point between the broken streetlight and the ice cream shop, each of them decided that maybe ghost hunting wouldn't be so bad after all.

* * *

Exactly one month after their first hunt with Vivi, (eight hunts later, and the boys were getting rather comfortable with ghost fighting), Vivi flew into their apartment, collapsed on their sofa (landing face down, and her feet accidentally kicking Lewis's lap as she shoved her face into the sofa), and promptly screamed into a pillow, the sound coming out muffled. Mystery trailed in after her, shutting the door behind him.

While this was, by far, not the most odd way that Vivi had swept into the apartment before, she was screaming her lungs out into a throw pillow, and that did prompt a bit of notice.

Lewis hit the pause button for the video game he and Arthur were playing, and looked over at the Vivi collapsed on his sofa.

“Hey, Vivi,” he said.

“hey, lewis,” she said, her voice coming out rather quiet, on top of being muffled by the pillow.

“What's up?” Arthur said, turning to face her (he was sitting on the floor in front of the sofa, as he didn't prefer conventional seating, or so he claimed. This turned out to be a good thing, as otherwise Vivi would have thrown herself onto both her and Lewis's laps upon her entry, and that would have been uncomfortable, and possibly painful).

“hey, arthur,” she said, and promptly let out another scream into the pillow.

“You okay there?” Arthur asked, once her screaming died out (which was a while, as she had a rather impressive lung capacity).

Vivi lifted her head up from the pillow and frowned.

“No,” she said, before shoving her face back into the pillow, “nooooooooooooooo.”

“What's wrong?” Lewis asked.

Vivi tossed the pillow aside and flipped over onto her back, her feet still in Lewis's lap, and frowned again, her eyes glaring a hole in the ceiling.

“I have been living here for almost two years,” she said, quite obviously agitated by the fact.

“And?” Arthur prompted.

“And?” she said, incredulously, “And? There has to be an 'and'? I have been living here for almost two years. _Almost two years_. That's so scary. I have an apartment, and I pay rent, _and I get mail_. I get so much mail, it just comes, and that's scary because that means I have an address that people can reach me at. I don't think you know how much getting mail bothers me.”

“What's wrong with living here?” Lewis asked. He rather liked living in the city, but it was probably just because it was the only home he ever knew.

“I have been living here-”

“For almost two years,” Arthur interrupted, “We know.”

Vivi glared at him, although it was obvious she didn't really have any malice behind it.

“As I was saying, I have been living here for almost two years, which is about a year and a half longer than I have ever spent living anywhere else. Since I was ten.”

Lewis tilted his head.

“Did your family move around a lot, or something?” he asked.

She looked at him and frowned again, obviously mentally debating something.

“Yeah, something like that,” she said, in a way that meant it was nothing at all like that. She sighed, and continued. “But basically, I don't like staying in one spot for very long. It's just not _me_. And this city is almost out of ghosts and demons, I nearly cleaned the whole place up! What would I even do then? Work at a coffee shop? Or be an accountant? I don't think you guys know how afraid I am of being _an accountant_.”

“Math is pretty scary,” Arthur quipped.

“It's not just the math, it's just the idea of going to work from nine to five. Like, actually sleeping at night and being up during the day. Drinking coffee and talking to coworkers that I don't even care about. And not being able to work my own hours, and really, coffee is _disgusting_ , and just the whole idea of being an accountant, or any other 'normal' job for that matter, is just scary.”

“Well, there had to be something you wanted to be before you became a ghost hunter? What did you want to be as a kid?” Lewis asked, just a bit unsure of how to deal with this situation. It was either Vivi find a new job, around here, or _leave_ , by the sounds of it, and he couldn't have Vivi leave his life as easy as that.

“I wanted to be a dog until I was six. Not an accountant. Pass me that pillow by you,” she said.

Lewis did so, wordlessly.

She pressed it to her face, and let out another scream.

“Look, Vi, I can see you're stressed,” Arthur began.

“understatement!” she shouted, into the pillow.

“Okay, I can see you're _very_ stressed. Is there anything we can do about it?” he asked, cutting right to the chase.

Vivi mumbled something into the pillow, quietly and incoherently.

“We can't hear you,” Lewis informed her.

The mumbles grew slightly louder, but were still rather indiscernible.

“Vivi,” he sighed, and then he gently attempted to pry the pillow away from her. She clung onto it for a moment, before letting him have it.

“Now,” he said, tossing the pillow across the room to land next to the other one, “You were saying?”

“There is something you guys can do about it. But you're never gonna want to do it,” she said, frowning up at the ceiling and not meeting either of them in the eye.

“Try us,” Arthur challenged.

“I bought a van!” Vivi blurted out, first checking Lewis's reaction, and then Arthur's. Mystery was still sitting, passively, by the door.

“And?” Arthur said, after a moment of trying to figure out what a van had to do with anything.

“And I'm gonna leave. I'm gonna pack up my stuff and live in the van and travel all over and hunt ghosts and never live in an apartment again,” she said, speaking rather quickly.

Arthur paled, and he found the idea of Vivi leaving rather sad. Despite the relatively short time he had known her, he considered her one of his best friends (tied with Lewis, of course), and found it hard to picture life _without_ her dragging them along on hunts, or bursting into their apartment at least once a day.

Something inside of Lewis's chest clenched, it was as if his heart was actually, physically repulsed at the idea of living without Vivi in the apartment across the hall, without her chatter and her smiles, without her hugs and just her constant sunshine in his life. Hell, he hadn't even worked up the courage to tell her that he was kind-of-sort-of in love with her.

“And I want you two to come with me,” she said, before either of the boys could get too caught up in their thoughts.

It took a moment for this to register, and Arthur was the first to respond.

“That... that would be pretty cool, actually,” he said, head tilted slightly in thought, “Like, I could write from anywhere, and it would be interesting to just travel around like that.”

Lewis thought it over.

All he really had tying him to the city was his job, his apartment, and Vivi, Arthur, and Mystery. If they left without him, he would be back to where he was two years ago, a lonely guy with a dull job and an empty apartment.

And although ghost hunting was fairly daunting, it certainly seemed more fascinating than serving spicy food to people at all hours of the night.

“We should do it,” he said, only just now noticing that the other three in the room were watching him, “It'd be pretty fun, I think.”

Vivi wanted to smile, wanted to hug both of them, wanted to scream in a pillow again (this time out of happiness). Her two best friends weren't just letting her leave, like she had feared would happen, and instead, they actually wanted to come along with her.

“Really?” she asked, hope evident in her tone.

“Let's do it,” Lewis said, grinning, while Arthur enthusiastically nodded his agreement.

Vivi let out a small shriek of joy, and sat up (now sitting in Lewis's lap, he noted rather vividly). She grabbed Arthur by the collar of his vest and Lewis by his cravat, and pulled them both into a hug, Mystery hopping up on the sofa and joining them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter two, yay!


	3. Of Caffeine and Van Breakdowns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vivi drinks coffee and that's probably a bad idea, and the van breaks down at a rather inconvenient place.

It took them all a week to pack up or give away their stuff, Lewis to quit his job, and give their landlady notice that they were leaving (she didn't mind letting them out of their leases early, as that meant there would be less ghosts traipsing about in her building), and once it was all taken care of, it was a Saturday, and Vivi was quite anxious to be off.

Lewis was the one who insisted that they get an early start on the road, and said that they would leave at eight a.m.

They wound up leaving at seven, and he had thought that things would go smoother than expected, but, of course, they didn't.

Vivi, despite being a bit sleepy, insisted that she take the wheel, as it was all her idea, and Lewis, who was busy loading up the back when she hopped into the driver's seat, let her. Arthur didn't protest either, because as soon as the van was loaded he collapsed onto the back seat and promptly fell asleep. Mystery, who was also rather unhappy at being woken up at the ungodly hour of six a.m. and was having trouble staying up even though he'd only been awake for an hour, climbed on top of Arthur and fell asleep on his back.

“Vivi, you sure you're okay to drive?” Lewis asked, as he slid into the passenger side of the front seat.

“I'm fine, Lewis,” she insisted.

“You're not tired?”

“Oh, I'm freaking tired, you don't even know. Like, I could go to sleep for a billion years right now, but I'm fine. We're gonna go on a coffee run before we hit the road.”

“I thought you hated coffee,” Lewis said.

“Oh, I do. But tea makes me sleepy, and I need caffeine one way or another. Some sacrifices have to be made here.”

Vivi, even a sleepy Vivi, was generally pretty energetic, and Lewis wasn't sure if Vivi on caffeine was a very good idea. But he was feeling a bit tired too, and so he didn't protest as she drove around to find the nearest drive-thru coffee place.

It took them a half hour to find one, and a couple more minutes to pull up to the speaker in front. The worker on the other end of the speaker offered a cheery greeting, far too cheery for seven thirty a.m.

“What do you want Lewis?”

“Plain coffee, black,” Lewis said, and Vivi relayed this to the speaker.

“Arthur?” she said.

Arthur, who was half asleep, groaned irritably before speaking.

“Haff cafflaff,” he mumbled, his words muffled and distorted as his face was still pressed into the vinyl of the backseat

“One hot chocolate,” Vivi said to the speaker, “And-”

“Effra woff cremm!” Arthur interrupted.

“With extra whipped cream on the hot cocoa,” Vivi added, and Lewis briefly wondered just how she understood what Arthur was saying.

“And,” she continued, “I want one white chocolate coffee, the biggest size you have, with like, um, give me two shots of espresso in that. Wait, make that three. And give me all the chocolate cake pops you have. And I do mean _all_ , not just a lot of them.”

Before Lewis or Mystery could comment on the sheer amount of caffeine she was getting, she had already completed their order and was pulling up to the next window.

Once they had their stuff in hand (Vivi's coffee was huge, they didn't put enough whipped cream on Arthur's hot chocolate, Lewis's coffee had cream and sugar because apparently the barista didn't know what plain black meant, and they had given them a bag of _at least_ fifty cake pops, making the bill a bit steep, but Vivi said it was totally worth it), they drove off.

Arthur had downed his hot chocolate in seconds, apparently too tired to care about the scorching hot heat of it, carefully placed the empty paper cup in the backseat cup holder, and promptly fell back asleep (with whipped cream still on his nose, and a few chocolate shavings in his goatee).

Lewis took careful sips of his coffee, frowning slightly at the cream and sugar, but decided not to complain. It was almost eight a.m., and coffee was coffee.

Vivi drank her coffee in big gulps, and it took no less than five minutes for the caffeine to kick in.

She was practically buzzing in her seat, a smile that was bordering on maniacal on her face.

“So,” she said, sounding even more energetic than her usual self, “Where are we going?”

Lewis frowned.

“I thought you had a plan?” he questioned.

She shrugged.

“Nope! Usually I just wing it. I used to just drive around and hunt ghosts, back when I was still a teen, but then when I got older, I started picking up contracts, and just went wherever they needed me. But I don't know if I want to do that anymore.”

“Contracts?”

“Yeah, like sometimes it's just a simple job, like some rich family with a super old haunted house hires me to live with them until I clean the place out. Or sometimes it's a big job, like a city will hire me, I sign a contract, and I get rid of all the ghosts there. That's why I moved back there,” she said, waving a hand absentmindedly to gesture behind them, before continuing with her rambles. “But I was thinking we could do more freelance stuff. Like, just drive around, and if there's a ghost, send it to the afterlife. Contracts are a bit, what's the word, um,”

“Captivating?” Lewis suggested.

“Yes! That works. Captivating. I am not staying in any place for two years again!”

“So just picking off random ghosts, then?”

“Yep!” Vivi said, and Lewis frowned again.

“But, how do we even know if we're headed some place with ghosts?” He leaned forward, and began searching through the glove compartment. “We should have some semblance of a plan, _at least_ a vague idea of where we're headed. I don't want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere.”

Vivi took her eyes off the road for a split second to watch Lewis, before returning her gaze to the empty highway ahead of them.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Looking for a map,” Lewis replied, shifting through the items of the glove compartment. There was a large bag of quarters, a few receipts, a half eaten granola bar, and a pair of bright orange fingerless gloves, but no map.

Vivi laughed, and then shoved her backpack (that was residing on the floor) over to him, using her foot, and making the van lurch slightly as she took her foot of the gas and pressed it back on.

“My laptops in there,” she said, “I don't do old fashioned maps.”

Lewis was the kind of person who did do old fashioned, reliable, paper maps, (also the kind to place ads in the paper, actually buy a newspaper, and not have an email account). Despite that, he picked up Vivi's very blue backpack, unzipped it, and began rifling through it's contents in search of her laptop.

“Don't you need wireless internet access to get to any map thing?” he asked, as he shifted a scarf and notebook out of the way, before pulling out the laptop. “There isn't any wireless internet out here.”

“First off, it's called wi-fi,” Vivi said, attempting to suppress her giggle at Lewis's lack of tech knowledge, and failing, “And not always. Let's just say my laptop is special.”

Vivi's laptop was surprisingly a plain black, but it was obvious that she tried to remedy this by covering it in stickers. Glittery stars and moons and flowers adorned it, making it more Vivi-ish.

Lewis opened it and powered it up, smiling at the sight of her icon (which was a selfie of her, him, Arthur and Mystery).

“What's your password?” he asked, fingers posed over the keys.

Vivi frowned.

“Grab the wheel,” she said, and before Lewis could question why, she let go, leaned over and snatched the laptop.

Lewis grabbed the steering wheel, stopping the van from swerving wildly, and Vivi quickly typed in her password. There was a loud thud from behind them, and a equally as loud groan from Arthur. Vivi shoved the laptop back onto Lewis's lap, and placed her hands back on the steering wheel, and Lewis only pulled back his hands after he made sure she wasn't planning on letting go.

“Why?!” Lewis exclaimed, more than a little shaken up.

“My password is a secret!” Vivi replied, not shouting out of anger, but more from the caffeine and general excitement.

“Secret enough to get us killed?”

“It's... it's embarrassing,” Vivi blurted out, “And besides, we wouldn't have died. No one got hurt!”

“You woke me up,” Arthur said with a pout. He was leaning over the front seat, and half his face was red from being pressed against the backseat while he slept, the other half _very_ red from smacking into the ground when the van swerved.

Vivi glanced over at him. “Sorry, Arthur.”

“Eyes on the road!” Lewis exclaimed, a bit more antsy now that he had less faith in Vivi's driving skills.

“Sorry!” she replied cheerily, turning back to the road.

“Can you please stop yelling so I can go back to sleep?” Arthur said, as he tried to move Mystery so he could lay back down on the back seat again. Mystery cracked his eyes open and glared at him. Arthur glared back.

“There will be an attempt,” Vivi replied, and Arthur decided that it was the best he was going to get.

Mystery still wouldn't move, and he was now stretched out rather languidly across the seat. Arthur managed to squeeze himself in by the left door, shifting so his legs were tucked under him and Mystery's head was on his lap, and promptly fell back asleep.

Things settled down slightly, once Lewis gave Vivi a brief lecture on road safety. Vivi promised to keep her eyes on the road, and Lewis began looking at the map on her laptop.

It took only a few hours for the caffeine to wear off. Lewis was fine, but it was fairly obvious that Vivi was going to fall asleep at any given moment, and so Lewis made her pull over.

They traded spots, him at the wheel now, and Vivi leaning against the passenger side door. She was asleep in no less than five minutes.

* * *

Lewis reached over to fiddle with the radio, something to break the silence that now filled the van, when he heard Arthur shifting in the backseat. Lewis took a glance in the rear view mirror to find Arthur frowning, blinking sleepily.

“Good evening!” Lewis said, cheerily, “There's a hamburger up here for you if you want it, but it's probably cold by now, though. I also ate half of it, but it's still yours.”

Arthur mumbled something incoherent in reply, still groggy from sleep, and stretched his arms out over his head.

“Sleeping in a van isn't comfortable, like, at all,” he said, after a moment. “Vivi's asleep?”

Lewis nodded. “Passed out a couple hours ago.”

“How long have we been driving? And where are we even going, anyway?”

“About twelve-ish hours. And some town called Hillsbury, Vi's laptop said that it had a high ghost population, so she insisted we go there.”

Arthur stretched again, and then shifted Mystery's head off of his lap. He stood, ducking his head so it wouldn't hit the top of the van, and then awkwardly climbed over the front seat, fitting himself in between Vivi and Lewis.

“'Vi'?” he questioned, as he propped his feet up on the dashboard.

Lewis shrugged. “It's a nickname.”

“A nickname for Vivi, which is already a nickname for Vivian. How deep into the rabbit hole are we going to go?” Arthur said, half joking.

“You need more sleep,” Lewis replied.

Arthur nodded. “Yep. Who's brilliant idea was it to leave early in the morning?” He gave a pointed look to Lewis. “You know all of us sleep during the day, man, this isn't cool. Next time, we're not leaving before seven, _at night_.”

Lewis opened his mouth to make a rebuttal, when the van slammed to a halt. Arthur flung an arm to his side on instinct, stopping Vivi from tumbling forward. Lewis was shoved forward by the lack of movement, smashing his chest none to gently into the steering wheel (no airbags were deployed, however, and he made a hazy mental note that it was a serious safety hazard). Mystery dug his claws into the backseat to keep from slipping, and then slipped off the seat anyway.

None of them noticed the momentary crackle of electricity over the dashboard.

“What was that?” Vivi was the first to ask.

“I... I don't know,” Lewis replied. He tried pressing down on the gas petal again.

He took out the keys, placed them back in, turned them, to no avail.

“I think something's wrong with the van,” Lewis said.

“Shit,” Arthur said, “Do you even know how to fix car van problem stuff?”

“I can change tires,” Vivi said, still sounding tired, “But I don't think that's what's wrong.

“I can kinda fix cars, I used to travel around a lot, but I don't know if I can fix what's wrong with the van. We should probably get it off the road, then I'll take a look at it.”

The four exited the van, and Lewis, Arthur, and Vivi manged to get the van to the grass on the side of the highway, under the scrutiny of Mystery.

“Hey,” Vivi said, turning to Arthur once Lewis had the hood propped open and was looking for whatever issue caused their predicament, “Thanks for catching me before I hit the dashboard.”

“No problem,” Arthur replied, “I used to deliver pizzas as a teen, actually, so whenever my clunky old car fucked up, I would have to catch the pizzas before they slid off the seat, so now it's just instinct to do that. It really comes in handy.”

Vivi nodded. “That's pretty cool, actually.”

“Usually,” Arthur replied, the slightest bit sheepish, “But this one time, I was driving and a friend of mine who's like super short was in the other seat, my car stopped, and I actually wound up slapping them in the face. Instincts aren't always good.”

Their conversation ended with the sound of Lewis slamming down the hood of the van.

“There's _nothing_ wrong,” he said, scowling at the van as if that'd help, “I looked all over, nothing is wrong. It's in perfect condition, it should be working, but it _isn't_.”

Vivi frowned. “You sure?”

“Of course!” Lewis snapped. He caught himself quickly, shutting his eyes tight, and took a deep breath, in through the nose, out the mouth. He opened his eyes after a moment, and turned to Vivi. “I'm sorry.”

“It's okay,” Vivi replied. Lewis's outburst was a bit surprising, as he was usually pretty calm, but Vivi was generally quick to forgive.

“And I checked all over, there's no reason why it shouldn't work,” he said. He gave a tire a light kick, “Now we're stranded out here. At night. This is _great_.”

Mystery barked, and Arthur was the only one who turned to see why.

“Um,” he said, after a moment, an anxious wobble in his tone, “Was that house there a minute ago?”

Lewis and Vivi looked up from the van.

There was a house there, in the previously empty field, large and intimidating. It was at least four stories tall, with plenty of windows (all with the curtains drawn), and light practically radiating off of it.

Vivi grinned.

“I... I don't know?” Lewis said, unsure, “I don't think that was there?”

“It wasn't!” Vivi exclaimed, practically bouncing up and down. “It's a haunted house! I've only encountered two of these before!”

“I thought you said you cleaned out a few haunted houses before?” Lewis asked, referencing their earlier conversation.

Vivi shook her head.

“No. Well, sort of. See, there's haunted houses, like, human built houses that ghost sometimes reside in, I've did a bunch of those before. They're easy. But then there's _haunted_ haunted houses. Like, real, legit, technically everything in the house in an extension of the ghost, kind of haunted house. These are super, _super_ rare!”

She bounded back to the van, opening the back of it, and beginning to grab various pens, holy water flasks, and other things.

“So that whole house is a ghost?” Arthur asked, casting a worried glance towards it.

“Technically, yes and no. It's a projection that the ghost is making, it isn't the ghost itself. Like, if we killed the main ghost there or the ghost left the area, it'd fade,” she explained, "But it's not like we could just sprinkle holy water on it and call it a day. So it kinda is, but kinda isn't."

“Main ghost?” Lewis questioned.

“Haunted houses like that are beacons, of sort. If we had our EMF detectors turned on, they'd be going absolutely crazy. This house practically projects ghost vibes!” she exclaimed, as she handed Lewis some holy water, and Arthur a pen, “Other ghosts, spirits, demons, they can sense it, and they just flock to this sort of stuff! It's like a ghost hotspot!”

“So it's filled with them?” Arthur said, the idea of going into the house sounding less and less appealing, and more and more terrifying.

“Yep!” Vivi practically squealed, and before either of the guys or Mystery could say anything more, she was already wading through the thick, waist high grass, towards the house.

Mystery was the next to go, rushing forward to walk by her side. Lewis locked the van, it's lights flicking off with a chirp, and then was the next to follow.

The area suddenly seemed way too dark without the light of the van, even with the faint light coming off of the house. Arthur gripped the pen (the electrocution one, he noted) with a shaky hand.

“Fuck,” he said, and with that, he began heading towards the house, at a half run to catch up with the others.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update! Life and NaNoWriMo (a challenge to write a novel in a month I was doing) got in the way.  
> But I'm back, and I give you a cliffhanger (sort of?). Also, a loose explanation of haunted houses. There will be more on that in the next chapter, including a bit more on the kind of ghosts that can conjure up houses.  
> Also, the creators of the video posted up character profiles for the characters, only Lewis so far, at least to my knowledge. The only real issue with this fic and canon is that his profile says Lewis is 21 and a waiter, while I purposefully left his age ambiguous and had him as a bartender. I'm went back to the previous chapters and changed the bartender thing, as if Lewis is twenty one during the events of the video, he'd be nineteen during the beginning of this fic, and I don't think teenagers are allowed to work at bars. So now he worked at a restaurant.  
> But, besides that, I think his age might fit into this timeline. Which is a very loose timeline, and I wasn't planning on bringing age up much anyway. So yeah. Hopefully this will remain mostly canon-compliant, even after they put out Vivi's, Arthur, and Mystery's profiles.  
> Anyways, normal updates should resume, so expect an update by next Tuesday or Wednesday!


End file.
